Free Press guest columnist Amanda Koch Gregory is a 30-year-old metro Detroit high school teacher of language arts. She and her husband, Jason, have an active and inquisitive toddler, Rocco Boone. They are navigating this crazy life as a family of three who enjoy late brunches on the weekends, Michigan road trips, and dancing in their living room.

Growing up, my mom talked about her own natural childbirths and breast-feeding us kids, so I considered breast-feeding the norm. She described the benefits of her own experiences and it must have had a great impact on me because when I did become pregnant, I found a midwife and birth center in a hospital that supported natural childbirth.

My husband and I also took one-on-one classes through Embracing Birth Childbirth and Postpartum Services in Ferndale. We learned valuable, and surprising, information about breast-feeding. I had no idea how tiny a baby’s stomach is during those first few days of life. And that colostrum is enough to fill them up. We learned about good latches and cluster feeding, and we were encouraged to not give our baby a bottle until he reached at least 1 month of age.

A 2003 study describing the experiences of nearly 13,000 women has found that women who receive supportive care from a companion (non-hospital and non-partner) throughout labor are more likely than women without such care to avoid cesarean birth & other major medical interventions, and to be satisfied with their birth experience. These women were:

28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia

41% less likely to give birth with vacuum extraction or forceps

26% less likely to give birth by cesarean

33% less likely to be dissatisfied with or negatively rate their birth experience

Acupuncture can help during labor in the following ways:

Induce labor naturally and ease progression of labor

Relax and open the pelvis

Ripens/dilates the cervix

Releases endorphins, encourages relaxation, manage labor pain

Promotes effective uterine contractions if labor is not progressing optimally

Turns breech/posterior babies

Relieves a cervical lip

Sustain a mothers energy

Lowers high blood pressure

Reduce the need for medical interventions

Reduces postpartum hemorrhage

Acupuncture during pregnancy

Research has shown that acupuncture is effective at reducing pelvic pain during pregnancy, reducing morning sickness, and effectively turning a breech baby. The “pre-birth protocol” (once weekly starting at week 36) has been shown to decrease medical intervention. In women who received pre-birth acupuncture there was:

An overall 35% reduction in the number of inductions (for women having their 1st baby there was a 43% reduction)